Murray takes responsibility for fundraising lapse

Lt. Gov. Timothy P. Murray said Friday he has stopped actively raising money and will take responsibility for any consequences that stem from an ongoing probe of his campaign finance activities.

In his first public comment since it was disclosed Thursday that state regulators concluded Mr. Murray and his committee “did not comply with” campaign finance laws, Mr. Murray said the more than yearlong probe has taken its toll, has been a distraction at the Statehouse but said people can still trust him.

“Obviously the news of the last couple of days is frustrating,” he told reporters prior to an “Earned Income Tax Credit Awareness Day” event at the Worcester Community Action Council.

“You work hard, you try to build a reputation to get things done and you try to make sure you're doing things right,” the former Worcester mayor said.

But he reiterated that he asked state regulators to dig through his campaign finances after reports last year that Mr. Murray, his campaign committee and disgraced former Chelsea Housing Authority Director Michael McLaughlin may have violated campaign finance law.

“If we made mistakes I'm responsible. I will take responsibility for whatever mistakes that may have been made. But we try to do things the right way.”

On Thursday, the Office of Campaign and Political Finance released a Sept. 19 letter indicating that Mr. Murray and his committee did not comply with regulations governing the solicitation and receipt of contributions and referred the matter to Attorney General Martha Coakley.

According to OCPF, although the public only learned this week the agency found evidence of campaign law violations involving Mr. Murray, his lawyers and Gov. Deval L. Patrick had been aware of the findings for nearly four months — well before Mr. Murray announced Jan. 18 his decision not to run for governor next year.

The OCPF investigation was requested by Mr. Murray after reports of alleged strong-arm fundraising by Mr. McLaughlin surfaced in a series of Boston Globe stories into public corruption in the Chelsea Housing Authority.

Mr. McLaughlin was charged Wednesday in U.S. District Court with falsifying records to understate the amount of his annual salary as housing director.

Mr. Murray said Friday morning that Mr. McLaughlin was never authorized to solicit donations and reiterated that he asked OCPF to mine the data.

“It was apparent somehow that we were in receipt of donations that people were pressured to give,” Mr. Murray said. “I don't want those types of dollars. That's not the way we try to do things.”

“We may be in receipt of donations that were solicited inappropriately. I never asked for those donations and I never asked anyone to do that. If we've got donations we shouldn't have, I want to get them back. And if we made mistakes I'll take responsibility for that. It's my committee.”

OCPF spokesman Jason Tait said the letter referring the agency's finding of evidence that campaign fundraising laws had been broken by McLaughlin, Mr. Murray and his campaign officials was sent to Mr. Murray's lawyers at the same time it was forwarded to the attorney general's office for further investigation.

He said findings of investigations by his office are posted on the agency's website when the investigation is resolved by finding no wrongdoing or through assessment of penalties or the ordering of corrective action by the agency.

But, he said, in cases where an investigation results in a referral to the attorney general's office, the letters outlining the findings of OCPF investigations are not posted publicly.

After Mr. McLaughlin was charged Wednesday, the letter was released to reporters who asked for it to be disclosed, he said.

Asked about his future political career, Mr. Murray said, “I don't know, these things are frustrating. Every candidate, every person goes through challenges. We're just going to do the best we can with it.”

He rejected assertions that the probe undermined his credibility.

“I've got a record of 15 years of getting things done,” he said.

Mr. Murray said last week's decision not to run for governor was made for family reasons and because anyone running in 2014 faces caucuses and St. Patrick's Day events in February and March.

His campaign account had $391,000 as of Dec. 31. Mr. Murray said he is not actively raising money and has canceled fundraisers scheduled over the next few months.

“We'll remain politically active but we're not going to be aggressively fundraising at all,” he said.

Mr. Patrick on Friday reiterated his support for Mr. Murray. He said he and Mr. Murray were aware of the OCPF findings and have discussed them frequently, along with the question of whether Mr. Murray would run for governor.

“Frankly we have been talking about this for months,” the governor said when meeting with reporters Friday outside the annual meeting of the Massachusetts Municipal Association.

“The lieutenant governor and I have had a lot of conversations about this. He has answered a lot of very pointed questions, not just from you folks, but also from me,” Mr. Patrick said of those conversations.

“I trust him. His answers have been complete. He has continued to cooperate with authorities who are looking into it. Right now we have got an investigation ongoing and we just have to let that play out,” Mr. Patrick said.

The governor said he believes the OCPF finding — and continuing investigation into whether Mr. Murray or members of his campaign staff violated campaign laws by accepting donations that were raised in violation of state campaign laws — was not the reason Mr. Murray decided not to run for governor.

“I think the lieutenant governor has explained any number of times what Mr. McLaughlin did that he knew of, and what we have since learned about it and his decision not to run was a personal one about the life of two small children,” the governor said. “It was a tough decision because he is a very, very capable public official. He has been in this line of work a long time and I think had a perfectly strong claim on being governor and I hope he will consider running another time.”